Chapter 1: Welcome to Dreamscape

Rico opened his eyes and his head flung back from the table he had been resting his head upon.

' Where am I? Who is he?'

These were Rico's first thoughts as the image of the completely white room and man in a suit sitting across from him reached his befuddled mind. The man was definitely Asian in origin and had a finely shaped face that was bespectacled with standard black reading glasses. A name tag on his suit stated who he was

" Hello Mr. Validez! What's the last thing you remember?", Mori Jan offered reassuringly. Rico paused and thought.

'My name is Rico Validez. I'm 22 years old and am from... I'm from... why can't I remember?'

"It's OK to be disoriented Rico. It usually happens to people in this situation. Just think of the last thing you were doing."

Deciding to trust Mr. Jan, Rico thought back to the last thing he remembered before waking up here.

"I was in a lab. I was performing the final step of my experiment and then..."

As much as he tried Rico couldn't remember what had happened after he had flipped the switch to turn on the Tesla coil.

"It's fine Rico. I understand if you can't remember past that point. What happened took less then a millisecond."

"What happened?"

"The coil couldn't handle the amperage and so it blew up causing three deaths including yours."

Rico looked at Mori Jan like he had suddenly told him strawberries could hold philosophical debates. He was dead? This simple statement was not registering for Rico. Mori Jan chuckled.

"I know it seems crazy and many people who die don't believe it. That's why we make sure to show proof you are dead."

Mori Jan reached under the table and pulled out a hand mirror and turned it towards Rico. If Rico could, his face would have paled. But he couldn't because what faced him in the mirror was a ghost. Not a ghost who's body resembled the person it came from but the classic white bedsheets over the head kind that was used for Halloween. Where the eye holes should have been were two balls of light.

Rico instinctively looked down and confirmed he was a bedsheet. He tried to move his arms and a part of the sheet on either side moved up. But there was nothing underneath.

'What the...'

"Confusing isn't it Mr. Validez? Now I'll wait until you can confirm you are dead."

To say that Rico was stunned is an understatement. It is also pointless to say what went on inside his mind. Death was a hard thing to move past for the mind. After minutes of stoney silence as Rico came to the fact that he was dead, his mind finally jumped to the next logical place.

"So what is this place?"

It looked to him like a training room from the Matrix. An infinite room of whiteness with him and Mori Jan at the center.

" Well Mr. Validez, you should know about all the things they say the afterlife is. Heaven. Hell. Demons. Angels. You get the picture. First of all, it is all true. Every single thing that the Christians on Terra believe is real." Mr Jan stared to explain in a normal and friendly voice. But underneath that tone, there was a hint that he had said this countless times. After a brief pause to see if Rico was following along he continued.

" Since the beginning, souls have always gone to Hell or Heaven. However this started to change in 1900 when the world population started to really ramp up. With the massive wars that humans started early on in that century, the processing of souls into both paradise and the netherworld was drastically backlogged. So much so that the souls trying to get in line had to stay on Earth where the back of the line is."

Rico decided to interrupt the person across from him: " So what does that have to do with this white room? Is it a holding room?"

Mr Jan smiled. " In essence yes but let me finish. Let's get back to the story. Heaven was starting to get anxious, not knowing how to handle this backlog. In their moment of need, a man came forward. He offered to hold the new souls in another place while they were waiting to be processed. In exchange, all he asked was that Heaven and Hell don't intrude on his domain without ( in his immortal words) ' a damn good reason'. And that is where you are right now. You are in Mr. Anderson's world. Please process this and let me know if you have any questions."

Rico sat there and thought. ' Of course i have a lot of questions but I should ask the most important two first.'

"First, is this room where I will be staying, and second what do I do in this... world?" Rico asked slowly. He was sure that these two questions would provide the most information from the chatty Mr. Jan and hopefully answer some of his other questions. Mr. Jan stood up and smiled. His smile can only be described as the same you see in every service industry. Genuine yet also fake.

" I think that it is better if I just show you around and explain. Also, it will be good for us to move to the second part of your orientation to this world."

He walked over to my right and gripped the air with his pearl white right hand. He twisted like there was a doorknob and pulled. Surprisingly to Rico a white door opened from seemingly thin air leading to an office hallway. Mr. Jan turned back to Rico.

"Follow me. Also, just because you are a bed sheet now doesn't mean you can't walk. Just start walking like you normally would and it will naturally happen."

He turned around and stepped into the hall. Rico followed him, keeping in mind that he wasn't a bedsheet and to not look down at himself. They walked down the hall which had pepper white tile, beige walls and white doors every few feet. At the end of the hall was a massive door, easily 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide. It was black with a metallic sheen to it. it's purpose seemed to say ' This is the entrance to something big and important'. Mr.Jan went up to the door and easily pushed it open. It had to weigh at least a ton but he pushed it like it was simply another office door. Mr Jan stepped across the threshold with Rico close behind.

Rico blinked, bright sunlight streamed down on him and the view of this new world he was in had only one word. Stunning. They had emerged from the side of a gray mountain onto a large ledge overlooking a brilliant green valley below. Mountain of gray and white stone expanded in front of him into a majestic range of rock. Blossoming pink and yellow trees laid across the valley and in the mountains. In the middle of the valley was a quaint red roof village beside a sparkling blue lake. It was like a fantasy world that Rico had stepped into. Everything was like it was in 4k ultra HD. The colors had more color. the details had more details. It was like someone had imprinted the perfect mountain valley and what it should look like right in front of him. He gasped in awe and surprise.

Mr. Jan smiled and turned towards him. He was at the edge of the ledge, his hand sweeping out across the scenery dramatically. His mouth opened into a happy grin.

"Welcome to Dreamscape!"